In brief
- Liberal MP Andrew Hastie has blasted Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce in a bitter public feud.
- Hastie accused One Nation of calling him a traitor over his stance on Ben Roberts-Smith.
Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce have been labelled "lying cowards" by a federal Liberal MP as a row over an alleged war criminal intensifies.
Liberal MP Andrew Hastie claimed in an email to supporters this week that Hanson had branded him a traitor, following a cartoon video posted to the One Nation leader's X account.
The nine-minute video, posted on 23 July, remained pinned at the top of the senator's X account.
There has been tension between Hastie, an SAS veteran, and Hanson since he spoke out against accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith.
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The row heightened when Hastie was subpoenaed to testify in court against Roberts-Smith.
Hanson's closest supporter, billionaire Gina Rinehart, has backed Roberts-Smith and has named a planned housing complex for veterans in his honour.
But Hanson denied suggesting Hastie was a traitor, telling The Nightly newspaper she would define him as "a w****r".
Joyce on Wednesday denied knowledge of the cartoon.
"I dearly hope that nobody is threatening Andrew or his family, and certainly not premising (threats) on anything to do with One Nation,'' he told reporters.
"It's got nothing to do with One Nation."
Hastie branded Hanson and Joyce, his former coalition colleague, as "lying cowards", speaking to News24 on Wednesday.
He called on One Nation to delete the cartoon or own up to it in parliament.
The WA MP accused the party of politicising the Roberts-Smith court proceedings and "trashing" his own service record.
"I would say that Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce are lying cowards, and I'll say it again so there's no ambiguity,'' he said.
"They are lying cowards."
"And then: On July 23, at the top of her X account, she posted a cartoon ... I'm called a traitor eight times ... when you start calling me a traitor to my own country, then we have a big, big problem."
He said neither had served "a day in our uniform overseas on operations".
"I stand with a lot of Australians who believe in the rule of law, who believe that Australian soldiers should be held to high standards of battlefield conduct," Hastie said.
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